It was up and moving today, although not as quickly as we'd hoped! Theres something about traveling with kids that slows you down. Even though we consider our boys old enough to handle themselves pretty well...everything still seems to take twice as long. Today we walked to the reunification palace...a very significant site in Vietnamese history where tanks stormed through the wrought iron gates bringing an end to the war in 1975. We then moved onto the War History Museum. We had read about the confronting images on display and had warned the boys that they might not want to see everything on display. We had also discussed the Vietnam War with them but nothing can prepare you for the harsh and distressing images that are the reality of war...and this war was especially cruel for the local people here. How to you explain to your children the deliberate and barbaric killing of millions of innocent people...men, women, children...little babies? Human beings no different to ourselves. I don't even want to hear the reasons or justifications, and I certainly can't give any to my own children. The photographs on display (especially those from the US journalists, many of whom were killed in action) were stunning...a tragic and heartbreaking record of the reality of this war.
Every photograph resonated with me...every soldier who may have been my own son...to the heart wrenching images of whole families lying dead on the ground...a mother with her young children, these broke my heart. Each image took my breath away with its honesty and it's story. Each room filled with reminders...the impact of chemical warfare some of the most confronting images I have ever seen. Perhaps it was lucky the museum closed at lunchtime and we were ushered out before we could spend too long witnessing what happened here just 40 years ago.
On the walk home we discovered a 'Gloria jeans coffee' It has been a while since I've had a good mocha...the the bakery next door was pretty good too. Glad to be back at our hotel for a swim and relax..
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